search

Search Maven Central artifacts by text or coordinates, with filters.

When to use it

• Find the current coordinate for a library before adding //DEPS.
• Resolve ambiguous artifact names when a README only gives a product name.
• Let an agent rank candidate dependencies without scraping Maven Central HTML.

Common workflows

jbx search picocli --json
jbx search --group org.junit.platform --id junit-platform-console-standalone --json
jbx search --group com.fasterxml.jackson.core --id jackson-databind --version 2.17.2 --json

Real-life examples

Find the exact coordinate before adding a dependency

jbx search --group org.junit.platform --id junit-platform-console-standalone --json
jbx search --group com.fasterxml.jackson.core --id jackson-databind --version 2.17.2 --json

Use search when you know a library name but need the Maven coordinate, latest version, or exact artifactId.

Agent loop

1. Search with --json and the narrowest known filters.
2. Prefer exact group/artifact matches over popularity guesses.
3. Copy the full coordinate into //DEPS or jbx resolve.
4. Resolve or compile before treating the dependency choice as correct.

Agent notes

Maven Central search is discovery, not endorsement. Do not pick a dependency only because it appears first; check group, artifactId, version, and project legitimacy.

JSON and schema

jbx search --json returns the query, total count, and normalized artifact candidates. Example output and field notes: search JSON.

Example JSON:

{
  "query": "g:org.junit.platform AND a:junit-platform-console-standalone",
  "numFound": 1,
  "artifacts": [
    {
      "coordinate": "org.junit.platform:junit-platform-console-standalone:1.13.0-M3",
      "groupId": "org.junit.platform",
      "artifactId": "junit-platform-console-standalone",
      "version": "1.13.0-M3",
      "packaging": "jar",
      "repositoryId": "central"
    }
  ]
}

Verification checklist

• Result includes the expected groupId and artifactId.
• Version is explicit when adding a dependency.
• Follow-up jbx resolve <gav> or jbx check --json succeeds.

Arguments and flags

This section is copied from the CLI help for this release so the page explains the actual accepted arguments.

jbx search

Search Maven Central for artifacts

Usage: jbx search [OPTIONS] [QUERY]...

Arguments:
  [QUERY]...  Search text, Solr query, or Maven coordinate (group:artifact[:version])

Options:
      --group <GROUP>      Solr groupId filter (maps to g:<group>)
      --id <ID>            Solr artifactId filter (maps to a:<id>)
      --version <VERSION>  Solr version filter (maps to v:<version> and searches the gav core)
  -n, --limit <LIMIT>      Maximum number of results to return [default: 20]
      --json               Return structured JSON for agent/tool consumption
  -h, --help               Print help

Skill

Agents can fetch the matching versioned skill with:

jbx skill get jbx-search